LEGACIES IKE MCWHORTER: Meet a man with a burning 
desire to restore long leaf pine ecosystems in east Texas 
 ... on Passport to Texas Legacies ... 
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Passport to Texas Legacies from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Years of logging operations in east Texas created an 
environment whereby hardwoods encroached on land 
once populated by longleaf pines. During his tenure with 
the Texas Nature Conservancy, Ike McWhorter developed 
a prescribed burning program to restore the longleaf pine 
ecosystem. 

"Our challenge was to restore these systems and to maintain 
that o[pen character that longleaf needs. Of course, longleaf is a 
fire adapted system, and natural fire regimes no longer operate; 
so we have to use prescribed burning to restore and maintain 
these areas. 

"So, it was my charge to put together a program of 
prescribed burning to restore these areas. And that was real 
interesting because I had no experience in it. I knew some 
about it, somewhat. But nobody else was doing it. It was 
something that was sorely lacking in our management. It was 
really the only way that we could really get these areas back in 
shape.

"So I began a burning program here just by the seat of 
my pants. I would go out and start burning, and bring friends in 
who had some experience in it. And we started out very small, 
and I was very fortunate, I think, to get through those early 
years of burning without any catastrophes. But we've started a 
successful program, and it's grown through the years. Now we have 
a very professional prescribed burning program in the Nature 
Conservancy here in Texas and we're getting the job done."

Mr. McWhorter also served as director of the Texas Nature 
Conservancy's Piney Woods Bioreserve and manager of 
the Roy E. Larsen Sandyland Sanctuary in the Big Thicket 
area near Silsbee. 

That's our show ... produced in cooperation with the 
Conservation History Association of Texas. Visit them at 
www.texaslegacy.org. For Texas Parks and Wildlife ... I'm Cecilia 
Nasti.